Meet the 2015 IFD Board of Directors
Through educational programs, summer internships, professional development initiatives, leadership conferences and other initiatives, the AHA-affiliated Institute for Diversity in Health Management (Institute) seeks to expand health care leadership opportunities for ethnically, culturally and racially diverse individuals, as well as increase the number of these individuals entering and advancing in the field.
To help lead and guide the Institute, health care and business leaders serve on its board of directors. This year, the Institute board and the AHA are working with a search firm to find the next Institute president and CEO to replace Fred Hobby, who announced last year that he will transition from his position this year.
Richard P. de Filippi, a trustee at Cambridge (Mass.) Health Alliance and managing partner of Ariano Partnership, is the 2015 chairman of the Institute’s board of directors. He is a former AHA chairman, led the AHA’s Equity of Care Committee in 2013 and is a board member of the National Association of Health Services Executives (NAHSE).
Below are the health care leaders who are serving on the Institute’s board this year. For more information on the Institute, visit www.diversityconnection.org.
Deborah Bowen
Bowen is the president and CEO of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), an international professional society of more than 40,000 health care executives who lead hospitals, health care systems and other health care organizations. Bowen has led ACHE since 2013, and previously served as its executive vice president and chief operating officer (COO).
Victor Crawford
Victor Crawford is COO of Aramark’s Healthcare Sector, which includes two groups: a hospitality organization that provides hospitals and senior living facilities with patient and retail dining and facility solutions, and a health care technology management organization that is the largest independent provider of biomedical and diagnostic imaging services in North America. He previously served as president of field operations at Pepsi Beverages Company.
Todd Hallmark
Hallmark has served as COO of Choctaw Nation Health Services Authority in Talina, Okla., since 2004. The health care system provides health care to more than 35,000 Native Americans in Southeast Oklahoma. He previously served as director of an inpatient rehab unit with responsibility for acute and outpatient therapy services at Kingwood (Texas) Medical Center.
Roy Hawkins, Jr.
Hawkins Jan. 8 became COO for Johnston-Willis Hospital, an HCA Virginia facility.
Hawkins previously served as COO and deputy director of the 415-bed James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa, Fla. Hawkins also is the president of NAHSE and is an alumnus of the Institute’s Summer Enrichment Program (SEP).
Suzanne Jackson
Jackson is CEO of HCA Virginia’s John Randolph Medical Center in Richmond. She served previously as CEO of Dominion Hospital, a 100-bed HCA Virginia behavioral health facility in Falls Church, where she was responsible for improving the quality of the patient health care experience and establishing an internal culture of excellence within the facility. Jackson is an alumna of the SEP.
Neil Jesuele
Jesuele is the AHA’s executive vice president of leadership and business development. He leads AHA’s for-profit companies and a number of non-profit entities and divisions, including AHA’s Health Research and Educational Trust, AHA Center for Healthcare Governance, American Organization of Nurse Executives and the AHA Personal Membership Groups, as well as various corporate functions such as strategic planning, finance and information technology.
John J. (Jack) Lynch III
Lynch has served as president and CEO of Main Line Health in Bryn Mawr, Pa., since 2005, providing executive leadership to suburban Philadelphia’s most comprehensive health care system. Prior to joining Main Line Health, Lynch served nearly 20 years as an executive with the St. Luke's Episcopal Health System in Houston. He chaired the Institute’s board of directors in 2012, and he serves as the chair of the Institute’s search committee to find the organization’s next president and CEO.
Herb Kuhn
Kuhn is president and CEO of the Missouri Hospital Association, the trade association representing the state’s 152 hospitals and 20 health systems. Kuhn previously held various leadership positions at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. In addition, he serves as a commissioner on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.
Robert Kuramoto, M.D.
Kuramoto is a managing partner of Quick Leonard Kieffer. He actively works on all levels of C-suite leadership searches in hospitals, medical groups and academic medical centers with a focus on physician executives. He currently serves on the New England Journal of Medicine’s Advisory Board for physician recruiting.
Wayne Rawlins, M.D.
Rawlins is vice president and national medical director of racial and ethnic equality initiatives at Aetna. He leads a team that builds programs and activities to improve access to culturally appropriate care and to decrease disparities. Prior to joining Aetna in 1997, Rawlins was a physician manager with the Northeast Permanente Medical Group for 13 years, treating a wide variety of patients in a busy primary care practice.
Michael Rodgers
Rodgers serves as senior vice president of advocacy and public policy for the Catholic Health Association of the United States (CHA). He oversees CHA’s advocacy agenda and public policy efforts; serves as spokesperson for CHA on legislative, regulatory and other public policy issues; and advances the advocacy agenda before Congress, the White House and a variety of health-related federal agencies. Prior to joining CHA in 2000, Rodgers was senior vice president at the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging.
Ninfa Saunders
Saunders is president and CEO of Navicent Health, a nonprofit health care organization in Macon, Ga., whose primary purpose is to coordinate the Medical Center, Navicent Health and other affiliated entities in their mission of providing a comprehensive continuum of high-quality, reasonably priced health care services to the region. Navicent Health has 830 beds for medical, surgical, rehabilitation and hospice purposes. Saunders is the chair-elect of the Institute’s board of directors and will become chair in 2016.
Juana Slade
Slade is the director of diversity and language services at AnMed Health in Anderson, S.C. Under her leadership, AnMed Health has been recognized nationally for its work in cultural and linguistic competence. She is a cultural competence fellow at the AHA’s Health Research & Educational Trust, a member of ACHE and a member of the Institute’s American Leadership Council on Diversity in Healthcare.
David Tam, M.D.
Tam has served as the chief administrative officer of Pomerado Hospital, which is part of Palomar Health in Escondido, Calif., for the past six years. Previously, he spent 24 years in the U.S. Navy as a pediatric subspecialist and health care executive, retiring with the rank of captain. When he retired from the Navy, he served as the COO for the Western Region of Tricare – the military’s health insurance program covering 2.9 million lives in 21 states.
Nicholas Tejeda
Tejeda is the CEO at Doctors Hospital of Manteca in Manteca, Calif., where he is responsible for the strategic and operational performance of the acute care hospital and its related outpatient services. Doctors Hospital of Manteca is a part of Tenet Healthcare Corporation. Tejeda is an ACHE Fellow and is the chair of ACHE’s National Early Careerist Committee. He also is the immediate-past president of the National Forum of Latino Healthcare Executives.
Brodie Wood
Wood is senior vice president of not-for-profit markets at Transamerica Retirement Solutions (Transamerica). Transamerica is a leading provider of customized retirement plan solutions for organizations of all sizes. He previously served as vice president of Transamerica’s participant counseling organization, a group dedicated to delivering employee education and retirement planning for plan participants.